Functionalizable Antifouling Coatings as Tunable Platforms for the Stress-Driven Manipulation of Living Cell Machinery

• Published in: Biomolecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 10; no. 8; p. 1146
• Main Authors: Víšová, Ivana, Smolková, Barbora, Uzhytchak, Mariia, Vrabcová, Markéta, Chafai, Djamel Eddine, Houska, Milan, Pastucha, Matěj, Skládal, Petr, Farka, Zdeněk, Dejneka, Alexandr, Vaisocherová-Lísalová, Hana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 05.08.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Acids; Acrylamides - chemistry; antifouling polymer brushes; Arginine; Aspartic acid; Biofouling - prevention & control; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell division; Cell Line, Tumor; cell mechanotransduction; cell signaling; Chloride; Coated Materials, Biocompatible - chemistry; Ethanol; Ethylene glycol; Extracellular matrix; Extracellular Matrix - metabolism; functional biointerfaces; Glass substrates; Glycine; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Humans; Mechanotransduction; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Oligopeptides - chemistry; PCB; Peptides; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Polymerization; Protein transport; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-yes - metabolism; Stress, Mechanical; surface modification; Yes-associated protein; zwitterionic material; United States > US; Czech Republic; Netherlands; cell mechanotransduction; antifouling polymer brushes; surface modification; zwitterionic material; cell signaling; functional biointerfaces
• ISSN: 2218-273X; 2218-273X
• DOI: 10.3390/biom10081146

Cells are continuously sensing their microenvironment and subsequently respond to different physicochemical cues by the activation or inhibition of different signaling pathways. To study a very complex cellular response, it is necessary to diminish background environmental influences and highlight the particular event. However, surface-driven nonspecific interactions of the abundant biomolecules from the environment influence the targeted cell response significantly. Yes-associated protein (YAP) translocation may serve as a marker of human hepatocellular carcinoma (Huh7) cell responses to the extracellular matrix and surface-mediated stresses. Here, we propose a platform of tunable functionable antifouling poly(carboxybetain) (pCB)-based brushes to achieve a molecularly clean background for studying arginine, glycine, and aspartic acid (RGD)-induced YAP-connected mechanotransduction. Using two different sets of RGD-functionalized zwitterionic antifouling coatings with varying compositions of the antifouling layer, a clear correlation of YAP distribution with RGD functionalization concentrations was observed. On the other hand, commonly used surface passivation by the oligo(ethylene glycol)-based self-assembled monolayer (SAM) shows no potential to induce dependency of the YAP distribution on RGD concentrations. The results indicate that the antifouling background is a crucial component of surface-based cellular response studies, and pCB-based zwitterionic antifouling brush architectures may serve as a potential next-generation easily functionable surface platform for the monitoring and quantification of cellular processes.